Human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1) is the causative agent of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) and AIDS related syndrome (ARC). Because the infectious virus is transmissible in body fluids, including blood and plasma, it is important to detect infected body fluids before antibodies to the virus are detectable or symptoms are evident in the infected individual. For protection of patients who might otherwise receive HIV-1-infected body fluid (e.g., whole blood or plasma during transfusion), or products derived from blood or plasma, it is particularly important to detect the presence of the virus in the body fluid to prevent its use in such procedures or in products. It is also important that procedures and reagents used in detecting HIV-1 be able to detect relatively low numbers of viral copies which may be present in an infected individual.
Assays and reagents for detecting HIV-1 have been previously disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,008,182, 5,594,122, 5,688,637 and 5,843,638; European Patent Nos. EP 178 978 B1, EP 181,150 B1 and EP 185,444 B1; published European Patent Application Nos. EP 403,333, EP 462,627 and EP 806,484; and PCT No. WO 99/61666.
The present invention includes oligonucleotide sequences used as primers for amplification and probes for detection of HIV-1 nucleic acid present in a biological sample, using an assay that preferably includes transcription-mediated nucleic acid amplification (e.g., as previously disclosed by Kacian et al., U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,399,491 and 5,554,516). The preferred detection method uses known homogeneous detection techniques to detect, in a mixture, a labeled probe that is bound to an amplified nucleic acid (as disclosed, for example, in Arnold et al. Clin. Chem. 35:1588-1594 (1989); Nelson et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,658,737; and Lizardi et al., U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,118,801 and 5,312,728). The present invention also includes nucleic acid oligonucleotide sequences that are useful for capturing the HIV-1 target using nucleic acid hybridization techniques that preferably use magnetic particles in separation of the captured target (Whitehead et al., U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,554,088 and 4,695,392).